The DMCA vs. the First Amendment
or
The Gallery of DMCA Abuses

David S. Touretzky, Carnegie Mellon University

When the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was enacted in 1998,
it amended US copyright law (Title 17, United States Code) in several
areas. These include (1) prohibiting circumvention of copyright
protection and management systems, (2) limiting liability of ISPs for
their users' actions, and (3) establishing new rules for broadcasting
music on Internet radio stations. Unfortunately, section 1201 of the
DMCA contains some restrictions against "trafficking in circumvention
devices" that are now being used to suppress lawful speech.
This web site documents some of these instances.
More resources are available at the Chilling Effects
Clearinghouse, co-sponsored by the Berkman Center for Internet
& Society and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

Universal City Studios et al. v. Reimerdes et al. (DeCSS)

DeCSS is a generic term for software that decrypts DVD movies. Two of
the first such programs were DECSS.EXE (for Windows) and css-auth (a
package of C code for Linux.) The motion picture industry sued Eric
Corley, published of the 2600 hacker
magazine, and two other defendants, to prevent distribution of this
code. I have mirrored the code, and many other versions of the
decryption algorithm, in my Gallery of CSS Descramblers at Carnegie
Mellon.

Felten et al. v. RIAA et al. (Music watermarking)

Ed Felten and colleagues took up the public invitation of SDMI (the
Secure Digital Music Initiative) to crack several proposed
watermarking schemes. After successfully cracking all four schemes,
the Felten team wrote a paper about their experience, to be presented
at an academic conference. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association
of America), SDMI, and Verance threatened the Felten team and the
conference organizers with a lawsuit under the DMCA if they did not
withdraw the paper. Felten is now suing them for their attempt to
suppress his free speech rights.

US v. Sklyarov and ElcomSoft (Adobe eBooks)

Mattel v. Skala (CP4break cracks CyberPatrol's block list)

IBILL shuts down IceFortress

IBILL handles credit card billing for pornograpy web sites.
IceFortress is a hacker site that hosted an essay containing some
uncomplimentary remarks about IBILL's security. Porno lawyer Steven
W. Workman used a DMCA threat to get IceFortress's ISP to take down
the site. After white-hat lawyer Jennifer Granick intervened, the two
parties eventually settled.

Microsoft threatens Slashdot (bypassing a clickthrough agreement)

Coming soon...

CueCat threatens various hobbyists (reverse engineering/lame crypto)

Coming soon...

Sony pressures "AiboPet"

The creator of aibohack.com, who
uses the pseudonym "AiboPet", was distributing modified versions of
Sony's software for the AIBO robot pet. Clearly this was a copyright
violation that Sony had the right to protest. But he was also
publishing some basic information about the protection scheme for the
AIBO's memory stick. In their letter to him, Sony claimed this
little essay violated the DMCA and asked that the file be taken down.

US Customs Blocks Import of Sega Dreamcast Coder Cable

The US Customs Service blocked import of a cable used to
connect a Sega Dreamcast game console to a computer, for uploading
code to the Dreamcast. Customs claimed the device violates the DMCA,
although exactly how it did so is unclear.

Nintendo Goes After Flash Advance Linker

The Flash Advance Linker is a product that can download
the software from a Nintendo Gameboy ROM cartridge onto a PC, or
upload software from the PC into the ROM cartridge. It is used by
GameBoy software developers. But it can also be used to pirate
Gameboy cartridges. Nintendo sent a threatening letter to Sam
Michaels, whose store sells the Flash Advance Linker, claiming the
device violates the DMCA.

Blizzard Shuts Down BNETD Emulator

BNETD is an open-source server that allows users of multi-player games
made by Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard's own server has various
drawbacks, which led its customers to reverse engineer the protocol
and create server software of their own, called bnetd. Blizzard used
a DMCA threat to force a shutdown of the bnetd web site.